Life Trove: Norway

Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts

10 August 2022

Some lovely photos of me in the Arctic taken by Richard

Wonderful photos taken by Richard.

24 July 2022

Our Arctic Adventure: Stopping points along the way

23 July 2022

Our Arctic adventure: An overview

Our team from left to right: Gavin (teacher), Graeme (photographer), Richard (filmmaker), Tanya (writer)

How our Arctic adventure came about

Ever since my dear friend, Sue Wight, visited the Arctic in 2007, and I saw her photos and listened to her animated stories about a wondrous world of ice and snow, I have fantasised about traveling to the far north to experience and photograph its wilderness and wildlife.

Imagine my ecstasy, then, when one of my closest friends, Gavin McCormack, phoned me to say there was an opportunity to go to the Arctic with him and a small team to put together a series of videos, filmed on location, that will form part of a unique series of lessons for Upschool that educates children all over the world for free about the wonders of the Arctic and the importance of taking care of the planet. As photographer, my role would be to take great photos for use in the the Upschool blog, media articles and lesson resources. It was a dream come true.

To make this project a reality, we've partnered with Aurora Expeditions, a wonderful, friendly and dynamic Australian company that specialises in small ship expeditions to the remotest parts of the planet. They too are passionate about sustainability and conserving the world's wild places, and have been nothing short of amazing in all the help and support they have given us to make it all possible.

Highlights of our expedition

We arrived back from the Arctic just a few days ago and it was even more mind blowing than I hoped for. Here are just a few of the highlights...

7 unforgettable encounters with polar bears, including a mum and its cub.
Getting within metres of walrus and puffin in our zodiac.
Sublimely beautiful icebergs, sculptured by nature, that were veritable works of art.
Waterfalls cascading from the ice cliffs of the world's 3rd largest polar cap.
Breaking our way through sea ice that extended as far as the eye could see as we travelled further north than our expedition ship had ever been.
Being blown away by the exceptional calibre of the experts on board and getting to interview them as part of our video lessons.
Discovering that my photographic hero, landscape extraordinaire Peter Eastway, was one of the expedition crew on the ship and getting to photograph thousands of kittiwake with him while lying on our backs under a bird cliff.
Aurora's amazing expedition ship: the ultimate combination of extreme functionality and maximum comfort.
Lazing in the jacuzzi on the ship's open deck, watching the Arctic scenery pass us by.
Taking a team plunge into the arctic ocean, just 1100 km from the north pole, with chunks of sea ice floating nearby.

A slideshow of our Arctic adventure

Enlarge the slideshow in the bottom right corner.

Posts related to our Arctic adventure

22 July 2022

Some Arctic photos to whet the appetite

Clowns of the sea that make you laugh with delight

Guillemots that fly in a perfect V

Vistas that make your soul expand

Close encounters with great white bears

Sea ice as far as the eye can see

A barren land of snow and ice

A history that is testament to the most heroic of journeys

Works of art sculptured by the ultimate artist

Massive cliffs of ice that make you feel small yet exalted

Arctic flowers celebrating the brief summer sun

The love of a mother on full display

Vast backdrops to life on centre stage

16 July 2022

Arriving in Longyearbyen, gateway to the Arctic

Exploring the town at the top of the world

The capital of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Longyearbyen is the world's northernmost town and the Norwegian gateway to the Arctic Circle. Being so far north, Longyearbyen has bragging rights for the world’s northernmost kindergarten, school, university, church, post office, museum, commercial airport and gourmet restaurant.

Longyearbyen is situated in the bottom of a valley with impressive mountains on all sides. Once a small mining settlement, Longyearbyen has evolved over the years into close-knit, self-sufficient community that is very much in tune with the richness of its past and the pristine nature of the environment.

As we soon discovered, in Svalbard, people remove their shoes when entering many restaurants, hotels and public buildings like museums, the hospital and the library and leave them near the entrance. This tradition goes back to the old days when people removed their shoes to avoid spreading coal dust everywhere. Many places have preserved this tradition and you can either borrow slippers or bring your own. In any case, it’s a great way to feel at home!

As the land of the polar bear where polar bears outnumber people, Longyearbyen residents are extremely aware of the presence of these powerful creatures. In fact, according to section 30a of the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act, you aren’t permitted to leave the settlement without at least a 0.308 Win calibre rifle to protect against polar bears.

While there is a small graveyard in Longyearbyen (which we came across on our explorations), no burials have happened here for over 80 years. This is down to the fact that the icy conditions and the permafrost prevent bodies from decomposing.

We stayed in Longyearbyen just one night but we managed to explore much of it and take in its unique atmosphere.

Some highlights of our time in Longyearbyen

The extraordinary views of Arctic mountains and glaciers from the plane as we flew over the south of Svalbard.
The stuffed polar bear at the airport: our first polar bear sighting!
The chill in the air as we left the airport - although it wasn't as cold as we expected. Actually lovely and refreshing after humid Singapore.
The hotel where we stayed - very warm and cosy with a lovely bar and restaurant, and yet another stuffed bear in the lobby.
Discovering to our delight that SAS airlines had definitely not cancelled their flight into Longyearbyen (on which many of the Aurora passengers were booked) as originally planned due to striking pilots and that our expedition would be leaving on schedule.
Walking into town to find food. We started off in the wrong direction, but this helped us get a great idea of the architecture of the town - multicoloured buildings all made of wood. There were inactive snowmobiles everywhere which is the primary transport in winter. The roads had no names: only numbers.
A cosy restaurant in town that did great pizza and other dishes - although not exactly cheap! Norway is certainly not a place for a cheap holiday.
Our first experience of the Arctic silence. In Longyearbyen, there is no underground, ring road or traffic noise. Bliss actually.
Our first experience of non-stop daylight. We left the restaurant at 11 pm and it was still bright outside. In fact, at this time of year, the sun never sets. Thankfully the hotel had thick blinds but this caused me to oversleep and miss breakfast!
A lovely exploratory walk with Gavin in the morning to the outskirts of town to an old graveyard on the slopes of a mountain. We climbed the slope for awesome views over the town.
A tour organised by Aurora that took us to Camp Barentz where we cuddled friendly sled-dogs and tucked into the world's most delicious wrap, and visited the Svalbard Museum where there were yet more stuffed animals and some fascinating information to add to our lessons.
Being dropped off at the port after our tour and embarking for the Greg Mortimer, our expedition ship, by zodiac. Needless to say, our excitement was palpable!

Leaving Oslo for Svalbard

Departing Oslo airport

Gavin and Richard united by the same vision: Empowering children to change the world

Flying to Longyearbyen

Gavin wearing his Norwegian beenie to get into the Arctic spirit

Our first wondrous sighting of the Arctic from our plane window

Rugged, wild and stunning

Arriving at Longyearbyen airport

After an epic journey, we are in the Arctic at last!

14,647 km from Sydney!

Our first walk around Longyearbyen (in search of food!)

Bicycles may be useful to get around in summer...

... but in winter, snow-mobiles are king of the road

Norwegians are understandably very proud of their Arctic pioneers and explorers

Our first drink in The Arctic

It was late at night but look at the light streaming in from outside!

Our first sightings of polar bear (all of them stuffed!)

In fact, there were polar bears wherever we looked!

Furry toys, ornaments, chocolates...

...and even a polar bear in the playground!

Gavin and I go for an exploratory ramble on the outskirts of town

We crossed a river draining from a glacier...

...to discover a little graveyard on the slopes of the mountain.

Like the intrepid hikers we are, we climbed the slope...

... for great views over Longyearbyen

Our first sighting of tiny Arctic flowers

Gavin's first video in the Arctic

Tour around Longyearbyen

Awesome scenery from the bus window on the tour organised by Aurora

Polar bear warnings!

More polar bears than people in Svalbard!

Warming ourselves in the cosy hut at Camp Barentz to hear stories about Longyearbyen's past

A great museum where we found fascinating information for our lessons and yet more stuffed critters to whet our appetite for the live sightings to come

Beautiful sled dogs

The dogs were very friendly and allowed us to pet them.

Embarking for the Greg Mortimer by zodiac

Needless to say there was great excitement all round!

All excited about embarking

We got to the ship by zodiac - our first zodiac experience of many

And thus began our Arctic adventure!

Our Arctic adventure: A list of posts

14 July 2022

Exploring the Arctic by zodiac

Zodiacs are an inflatable, highly buoyant boat, capable of carrying up to 16 guests at a time – although with Aurora, groups are usually capped at 12 to allow for extra room and comfort. In our case, our team of four was usually allocated our very own zodiac and guide, so we were particularly blessed with space which was particularly great for photography as you could move from one side of the zodiac to another to get the perfect shot.

Zodiacs brought us close to the incredible scenery and wildlife, allowing us to to see the world from a completely new point of view. They allowed us to get within 400 meters of glacier fronts, just a few meters from wallowing walruses and seals lazing on ice and close enough to icebergs to touch them.

We did a number of zodiac cruises on our expedition, exploring fjords and glaciers. They were also used to transport us to shore for our land expeditions and hikes.

Manned either by an expert guide or expedition crew, all we had to was hold on tight and feel the exhilaration of the fresh air as we cruised across the water. The windchill on the zodiac at higher speeds was sometimes quite severe, so we had to be well rugged up with beanies, scarves and gloves. Occasionally, the ocean swell would splash up into the zodiac, especially if we were going fast, so waterproof ski trousers and the specialised waterproof Aurora jacket were also a must to wear.